Chapter 20
Cayente didn’t want anyone to see Yulia until she changed her clothes, so she sent the maid who had been in the powder room outside.
Changing alone wasn’t an easy task, but fortunately, the dress she was wearing now wasn’t designed in a way that required the maid’s assistance to take it off.
By pulling the sleeves off her shoulders, it came off surprisingly easily.
“Um…”
“What’s wrong?”
The problem arose when she tried to wear another dress.
Unfortunately, this dress had buttons all over the back.
She had heard that buttons were fashionable these days, but she never expected the design to be like this.
At any rate, she managed to fasten the lower part of the dress, but the top had a section that she couldn’t reach.
“Can you call the maid outside?”
“Why the maid?”
Like the last time, this time too, Yulia couldn’t understand what about the dress seemed provocative, but Cayente, seeing her in it, made her feel uncomfortably self-conscious.
“No, no, it’s nothing.”
It was difficult to admit that she needed someone to fasten the buttons because her back was fully exposed.
Even though she knew it was useless, Yulia struggled and sweat profusely, trying her best to do it herself.
“What are you doing in there?”
But the sound of her struggling became a problem.
When Yulia hesitated, not knowing how to respond, Cayente, frustrated, stepped through the screen and into the room.
“I haven’t finished dressing yet!”
Yulia instinctively grabbed her chest and turned around, but Cayente, undeterred, moved closer behind her.
“Is that what’s been delaying you?”
Without a care, he touched the collar of her dress, which was slightly open.
Yulia shuddered, startled, and cried out.
“Please call the maid! Or… or Lucy will be here soon! Anyway, I can do it myself, so please go!”
“It’s not like there’s a designated person to fasten the buttons, yet you keep wasting time doing unnecessary things.”
With a sigh, as if disappointed, Cayente didn’t fasten the buttons but instead unbuttoned the ones that had already been fastened.
“Wh-what are you doing?”
“What do you mean, ‘I can do it myself’? You started fastening the buttons wrong from the beginning.”
“Ah…”
Yulia thought she had resolved the other parts, but since she wasn’t looking when fastening them, it seemed she had done it wrong.
As the buttons came undone, the dress became loose, and Yulia pulled the front of it tighter.
She felt like the dress would fall to the floor if she left it as it was.
“Why does the closure have to be buttons…?”
Despite Yulia’s embarrassed excuse, Cayente silently began fastening the buttons from the bottom.
Swoosh. Sizzle. As Cayente’s hand touched the collar, Yulia held her breath, the sound of his movements reverberating.
With her back exposed, Yulia became increasingly aware of her body.
After rushing out of the carriage and trying to fasten the buttons by herself, she was sweating, and she worried if there might be any unpleasant odor.
Listening for a reaction, Yulia could only hear Cayente’s breath. As someone who handled instruments, Yulia’s hearing was particularly sharp.
She could hear the sound of his breath even from a slight distance.
She felt his breath on her bare skin through the gap in her open dress.
Yulia gripped the collar of her dress tighter near her chest.
Once she started to become conscious of Cayente, every touch of his hand while fastening the buttons felt too vivid.
His large and strong hand that had held her waist.
Yulia swallowed dryly, feeling parched.
She was embarrassed by the sound that escaped her, unsure of what to do.
But before she could react, Cayente spoke first.
“You don’t need to explain who you are to the people you’ll meet today. There’s no one who doesn’t already know who you are. If they ask, just tell them your name.”
“Okay.”
“There’s no need for anything else. After all, the people here will only be interested in your name and your appearance.”
“Understood.”
Fortunately, Cayente seemed to think that Yulia was nervous about meeting strangers.
His voice, devoid of emotion, guided her on what to say to avoid unnecessary mistakes in front of others.
Yulia felt her tension ease with the natural flow of the conversation.
In this quiet room, where the only sound was their breathing, Cayente’s cold voice, which would usually sting, now felt strangely comforting.
If his breath had faltered or if there had been a sign of anything different from his usual demeanor, Yulia felt as if she would have been at a loss for how to handle it.
“Are you done?”
Suddenly, Cayente’s busy hands stopped moving.
Yulia, unsure whether he had finished, reached back and awkwardly smiled.
“There are still a few left…”
The dress was not fully fastened.
There were still three or four buttons left undone.
As she waited for Cayente to finish fastening the remaining buttons, she suddenly heard him speak again.
“What perfume are you wearing? Why does your body smell like this?”
Cayente’s hand slipped through the gap in her open dress and rested on her bare skin between her shoulder blades.
Yulia almost gasped, but she managed to swallow the sound.
She thought that if she reacted, Cayente might pull her close again, just for fun.
If he hugged her, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. But before she could even think, Cayente’s breath was already on the back of her neck, right where his hand had just touched.
Yulia grabbed the front of her dress tightly, trying to calm her racing heart.
Lucy would be back soon, and Henry was outside.
She needed to hurry back to the ballroom.
There were people Cayente needed to meet, and she couldn’t afford to let herself get distracted here.
“Brother…?”
But at that moment, Yulia was filled with despair.
How did I know he wasn’t going to think like that?
Yulia suddenly realized, once again, that she didn’t know anything about Cayente.
If his intentions went beyond just holding her, she wouldn’t have been able to refuse or even make an excuse.
She realized that no one would have blamed Cayente for being late.
“Do you mean… this perfume? It’s just sweat. I was rushing earlier, and then I was trying to fasten the buttons by myself, so I sweat a lot.”
Yulia deliberately mentioned the sweat.
She hoped that, if Cayente felt anything else, the mention of her sweat would cool his thoughts.
“Make sure you wear your clothes properly.”
“Eh?”
“I’m talking about your undergarments. You can’t have your back fully exposed just because you didn’t fasten the buttons.”
The tension, which had been tight enough to make it hard to breathe, instantly vanished.
The air that had been heavy with tension suddenly lightened. Cayente finished fastening the remaining buttons and stepped back.
“It’s just that the dress was so tight-fitting that it was uncomfortable to move in it. It’s not usually like this… I’ll be more careful next time.”
Yulia realized that he had been checking her outfit to make sure nothing was wrong.
She couldn’t be sure if he was actually trying to see anything else.
Relieved, Yulia tried to hide the tears that welled up in her eyes with a smile.
At the same time, she felt a little bitter.
Cayente had checked not only her outfit but also her undergarments.
She tried to convince herself that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. After all, sometimes avoiding the worst is the best you can do.
“Come, follow me. Put your gloves on while walking.”
“Okay.”
Yulia, relieved and no longer tense, followed Cayente down the long corridor.
She felt grateful nothing major had happened and tried to calm her still uneasy heart.
